Franklin Romero, Sports Correspondent
“I believe we [are] better and learned some things about who we are and who we can be,” said Mike Furbee, Grants High School baseball coach, after going 1-2 last week and placing fourth at the Farmington Scorpion Invitational Tournament.
The Pirates played Pueblo West (2-2) on Thursday, March 16 and handily defeated them by a score of 11-4. Izeyah Manzanares pitched five innings with five hits, two earned runs and eight strikeouts. Dominick Gonzales had 3-4 RBIs; Estevan Barela went 2-3 RBIs; followed by Niko Young who went 2-4 RBIs in that game.
In the second game, the Pirates lost to Piedra Vista High School (9-2) by a score of 4-1. In that game, Estevan Barela pitched six innings, and he allowed three hits and one earned run with eight strikeouts. Izeyah Manzanares went 1-3, Caleb McDougale went 1-2, followed by Nick Bustos who went 1-3.
In the third place game, the Pirates lost to Farmington High School (6-3) by a score of 9-1. Domonick Gonzales pitched 4.2 innings allowed 10 hits, eight earned runs and three strikeouts. Niko Young pitched 1.1 innings, allowed one hit, zero runs, and three strikeouts. Estevan Barela went 1-2 RBI’s while Nick Bustos went 1-2 and Dominick Gonzales went 1-3.
“Tough weekend against some top 5A competition— we will be back to work as we continue to prepare for district play,” said Furbee as he summed up the tournament.
Next up for the Pirates is a road trip to Gallup to play the Miyamura Patriots (3-6) on Wednesday March 22.
CIBOLA COUNTY SPORTS ROUND-UP
The Lady Pirates softball team is currently 1-9 after a back-to-back loss 20-2 and 22-6 respectively in a doubleheader against Miyamura High School (5-3) on Monday, March 20. The Lady Pirates will start district play as they hit the road on Tuesday, March 28 against Valencia High School (1-6).
The GHS Lady Pirate Tennis team 2-1 and the boys’ tennis team is 0-3 and both teams will play Los Lunas High School on March 28.
The GHS track and field team participated at the 13th Annual Mike Pecos Invitational meet at Bernalillo High School on March 14. Laila Martinez, a freshman, placed first in the 3200-meter run with a time of 11:43.00 and also took first place in the 1600-meter run with a time of 5:35.62. Manuel Gonzales, a junior, placed second in the high jump with a jump of 5-02.00.
The Laguna-Acoma Baseball team is 0-1 after a 11-1 loss on March 15 to Sante Fe Indian School (3-0). They will play Questa High School (0-2) on Thursday, March 23. The Lady Hawk Softball team is 0-1 after a 16-0 loss on March 15 to Santa Fe Indian School (2-0). They will play their next game on Monday, March 27 against Wingate (0-2) at home.